Automobile theft is on the rise today. Not only are cars being stolen from parking lots and garages, but a new crime, commonly known as "car jacking", has emerged. The crime of car jacking involves taking the car from the driver after the driver has already entered their vehicle. For example, people stopped at stoplights or entering parking lots at shopping stores are being confronted by armed robbers and forced to hand over their vehicles. Because car jacking necessarily involves a confrontation between the thief and the driver, the chances that personal injury will result are very high. Thus, the victim's best choice is to simply hand over the car.
When dealing with car theft in general, one key to reducing insurance costs is ensuring the vehicle is swiftly recovered. The longer that a thief has possession of the vehicle, the greater the likelihood that the car will be disassembled and its parts sold or that the car will be damaged or destroyed by a reckless joyriding thief. If the car is parked, preventing the thief from starting the car and driving away is the best defense against crime. However, when dealing with a carjacking, the thief is often armed. Thus, the best interests of the victim often dictate that the thief be able to flee the scene in the stolen car rather than remaining on the scene where he may retaliate against the victim.
Over the years, a variety of systems have been developed to make it more difficult for thieves to steal parked cars. Systems such as audible alarms are designed to draw unwanted attention to the thief as he attempts to gain entry into the vehicle and start it without first disarming the alarm. Other systems interrupt electric power to the starting system or fuel delivery system, making the car difficult to start without first disarming the alarm. However, these known systems have several disadvantages. First, most of these systems require the driver to arm the system before leaving his vehicle. Obviously, the driver may forget to arm the system or may choose not to arm the system when he is leaving his car for only short periods of time. Likewise, these systems must be disarmed by the driver before gaining successful entry into his vehicle and starting his vehicle. However, if the vehicle is attempted to be stolen after the driver has already gained entry and started the vehicle, there is no way for the driver to prevent the thief from driving away with the car.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a system and method for preventing theft of an automobile. The system should always be active, allowing the system to arm automatically without requiring intervention from the driver. The system should also be difficult to defeat. It should prevent starting of the vehicle without first being disarmed, and it should be extremely difficult for the thief to learn how to disarm the system or bypass the system. Furthermore, it would be preferable if such a system had a means for preventing unauthorized flight of the vehicle. Ideally, such a system would cause the vehicle to stall and prevent its restarting by the thief. However, care must be taken to ensure that the vehicle does not stall when travelling at high speeds. Such a situation may cause injury to innocent bystanders when the stolen vehicle suddenly loses power when travelling at high speeds. Finally, it would be safer for the victim if the car stalled only after the thief had travelled far enough away so that the thief would be unable to retaliate against the victim.